XIV

This time when I regained consciousness, I was even more confused than before. First off, the image I had seen burned into the back of my retinas before I lost consciousness was no longer there as if no more than a pain induced illusion. Second I was no longer sprawled out atop the strange cable in The Security Wing. I had awoken to find myself laying atop a mountain of books in The Educational Wing.

Or what was left of it. The Grand Library was THE biggest in the world. Or at least it was. Like the rest of Castle Smrt, The Grand Library had suffered damage from whatever had happened here. Confused as I was on how I had gotten to The Educational Wing from The Security Wing with no memory of making the trip ever which in of itself was strange due to each perspective Wing being on opposite ends of Castle Smrt, but I had mixed feelings when I learned of the destruction of The Grand Library.

I had visited The Grand Library only a handful of times and always accompanied by my uncle or one of his ' tutors '. I was never permitted inside by myself and when I asked why, I was answered with a beating that left me lying on the ground gasping for breath, not from the pain but from the anger of it. I had thought I had mastered my pain tolerance but over the past course of events I had realized that there was whole new undiscovered levels of pain that I didn't even know existed until then.

As I had laid there I was also told this:

" Enter not this Grand Library on your own. Forbidden you are. There is knowledge here not for the likes of you maggot."

I was excited to finally be in The Grand Library on my own, but its destruction was another matter entirely. I wasn't sure as to how that made me feel, whether to be angry or sad. Probably a mixture of both. It wasn't called The Grand Library for nothing. I remembered what I had seen when I had first visited The Grand Library. Floor to ceiling book shelves ran the length of the entirety of The Grand Library. It was so massive that it actually demanded its own Wing. One of the few tidbits that I had been given about The Grand Library freely was that the books here went as far back as the beginning of The New World.

This revelation sparked a curiosity and prompted me to ask ' The beginning of The New World? Was there something before The New World?'

That prompted another beating. In fact all my questions I 

verbally asked were answered with a beating usually followed by an answer of some kind to my question. However, this time I only got the beating.

My excitement at my discovery prompted me quickly into action to search The Grand Library for clues. Clues of any kind. Honestly my curiosity in general won out and I spent hours upon hours browsing The Grand Library. I felt like I was in a dream as I browsed from shelf to shelf learning about anything and everything I could possibly get my hands on in that exact moment. That is until the roar of my stomach brought me crashing back to reality.

Stopping quickly I made the decision to make The Grand Library my current base of operations as I currently have nowhere else to go. After a quick browse thru my memory banks I recalled the location of The Food Wing simply named because anything and everything to do with food could be found there.

After settling my stomach, I decided no harm in setting up a routine. Stay in shape. Stay healthy. Exercise Mind and Body. The Grand Library would be my base. The Medical Wing would keep me healthy and alive. The Food Wing would sustain me for 10 years or longer if need be.

In fact I saw no reason why as I seemed to be the sole survivor and Jim was my uncle to not just claim the entire estate of Castle Smrt as my own. After making this decision, I next organized my learning into priorities starting with learning how to repair my new home. With this settled, days turned into 

weeks. Weeks into months. Slowly as time went on, I learned what I could from the ruins of The Grand Library and set to work on repairing my home.

However with the onset of winter around the corner, I only had time to winterize one area and I chose The Grand Library. I loaded up with enough food and supplies and boarded up and winterized The Grand Library, settling in for the winter months to learn, grow, and stay fit.

As spring broke out and winter loosened her icy grip, I changed my routine to encompass the rest of the estate and the repairs to Castle Smrt doing what I could.